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<section id="sec-title-slide"><h1 class="title">Ethics:</h1><h2 class="author">Dr Carey Pridgeon, Dr Nazaraf Shah</h2><p class="date">Created: 2020-06-23 Tue 12:03</p>
</section>
<section id="table-of-contents">
<div id="table-of-contents">
<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
<div id="text-table-of-contents">
<ul>
<li><a href="#/slide-org27f881f">Ethics</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h2 id="org27f881f">Ethics</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org27f881f">
</div>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org9577d97">Where Did Ethics Come From</h3>
<ul>
<li>A precise origin is unclear, but we are aware of where it got refined, <b>Greece</b>.</li>
<li>In Ancient Greece the goto guy for ethics or ethos, meaning specifically
character, was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle">Aristotle</a>, this guy.</li>
</ul>
<div class="figure">
<p><img src="img/aristotle.jpg" alt="aristotle.jpg" />
</p>
</div>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="orgdc1bbec"></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates">Socrates</a> also did some good work in the field of ethics, but didn't write
anything down, leaving that to Plato instead, then he got into trouble by
annoying the people who ran Athens and got forced to kill himself, so that
didn't end well.</li>
</ul>
<div class="figure">
<p><img src="img/socrates.jpg" alt="socrates.jpg" />
</p>
</div>
<ul>
<li>Jacques-Louis David - 1787</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org8facc0e"></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Kindi/">Al-Kindi</a></li>
<li>Known as the father of Arab philosophy, and also a polymath (I couldn't fit
all of them into that lecture) he was the first of the Islamic peripatetic
philosophers, following on from the teachings of the ancient greek
philosophers, specifically those who followed the Aristotelean school (hence
<b>peripatetic</b>).</li>
<li>While he wrote treatises on Ethics, much of his work is now lost, and known
mostly by his influence on other scholars.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZQVzIMII-c">BBC Podcast on Al-Kindi</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="figure">
<p><img src="img/Al-kindi.jpeg" alt="Al-kindi.jpeg" />
</p>
</div>
<ul>
<li><b>Al-Kindi - (801 - 872)</b></li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="orgdfc1fbd"></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Farabi">Al-Farabi</a>, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-farabi-soc-rel/">ref</a></li>
<li>Yet another polymath, these people just keep popping up, don't they. He wrote
on diverse subjects. Ethics (obviously, or I wouldn't have included him in
this lecture) political philosophy, metaphysics, and logic.</li>
<li>In addition he was a cosmologist, mathematician and music scholar.</li>
<li>His concept of Ethics, much like that of todays Open Source people, was aimed
at creating a fairer society, in the vein of Plato's ideology.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="orgbdb7060"></h3>
<ul>
<li>He has also been claimed to be a scientist, although this term didn't
exist at the time.</li>
<li>There was no clear distinction in his time, or for a long time after, between
natural philosophy (the investigation of the natural world) and what we now
call being a scientist.</li>
<li>The term did not exist until 1834 when it was coined by Cambridge University
historian William Whewell.</li>
</ul>
<div class="figure">
<p><img src="img/farabi.jpg" alt="farabi.jpg" />
</p>
</div>
<ul>
<li><b>Al-Farabi (872 - 950)</b></li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="orgb59e0cc"></h3>
<ul>
<li>You studied BCS Ethics in the second year of your degree. That was business
ethics, a specific branch of the subject, and one required if you are later
take the BCS examination.</li>
<li>Open Source takes a broader view of ethics, since software as a product is
viewed in a different way.</li>
<li>Some concepts are the same, but in many cases the needs of the developer are
also important, where business tends to ignore the interests and rights of
individual developers in order to deliver a product.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org59fe9af"></h3>
<ul>
<li>Why this matters is because while you need customers to 'buy in' to your
product, you also need your developers on board as well.</li>
<li>The Commercial world is filled with stories of developers who get treated so
badly while developing software they leave, so the final product has to be
supported by developers new to the product.</li>
<li>A few links, but this is a large subject, one worth investigating, since it
concerns a career you intend to embark on.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.beseen.com/blog/talent/why-people-quit-2017-workplace-study-shows-widespread-discrimination-in-tech/">Why people quit (2017)</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/18/crunched-games-industry-exploiting-workforce-ea-spouse-software">EA and Crunch Time</a>, <a href="https://www.lawcareers.net/Explore/CommercialQuestion/Taylor-Wessing-Game-workers-unite-Unionisation-in-the-gaming-industry">Game Workers Unite</a></li>
<li>Two of those are games related, but the problem isn't.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org63e49d5"></h3>
<ul>
<li>Organisations like the Free Software Foundation take Ethical computing to an
extreme, claiming <b>no</b> code should be written in exchange for money.</li>
<li>This, much like Plato's ideal forms <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_forms">linky</a>, is an idea which cannot be
realised.</li>
<li>To use a somewhat extreme edge case, how many people do you think would board
a plane who's operating system was written by someone working without any
oversight?</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="orgf09af2d"></h3>
<ul>
<li>I'm not saying they should be paid directly for any specific code, such as the
code in the above example, but organised oversight and error checking/testing
costs money, because it takes people time to do.</li>
<li>Any such system would need an ethically sound organisation, with open code
written by full time paid members <b>who were not paid for the code they wrote</b>,
and who oversaw any external contributions.</li>
<li>What few people seem to realise is, even in the closed source world, most code
written isn't bought by the customer directly. Instead it's provided as
updates or patches.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org16b2349"></h3>
<ul>
<li>Mozilla is set up in a way similar to this, except they do have a <b>secret</b>
branch of code, with security aspects they don't share.</li>
<li>Similarly, their final build comes from a codebase inaccessible to any but
internal developers, and they fold in code from the publicly available code. I
can understand why they do this perfectly.</li>
<li>Given the current climate, with cyber crime being so prevalent, I can't see
any reason why an Open Source company would share <b>all</b> of their security
code and associated systems.</li>
<li>I can see good reasons to be open about a lot of it, but that's not my call.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="orgcb4a370"></h3>
<ul>
<li>Open Source is claimed to be <b>more ethical</b>, but what does this mean?</li>
<li>I think they say this and hope people will just accept it as <b>not as bad as
those commercial companies</b>, but ethics is a <b>little</b> more complex than that.</li>
<li>Certainly the commercial world can be unethical, I would hope you knew this
before taking my class, but I've attempted to demonstrate that you wouldn't
board a plane with an operating system written by some random developer
releasing his code under the GPL on Github.</li>
<li>You'd want a major aircraft builder to have either written, or commissioned
it, most likely at a cost of <b>many</b> millions.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org0f05cea"></h3>
<ul>
<li>The term <b>ethical</b> is too often used without really understanding what it
means.</li>
<li>This is why I started the lecture by referring back to Ethicists from the
past, I advise you to look them up.</li>
<li>It has a much wider meaning than <b>don't rip off customers because it's bad
for business</b>, although when I took the class this seemed to be the primary
focus.</li>
<li>Quality of Life, Satisfaction, Not Working Under Duress and a good Work and
Home Life Balance.</li>
<li>These are what ethical practices in business should embody now.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org1b9b781">Ethics and Open Source</h3>
<ul>
<li>You'd <b>think</b> Open Source would require that all software written using this
label had to be <b>ethical</b>, yes?</li>
<li>But how do you define ethical behaviour? I started this lecture by showing
ethics has been debated for thousands of years. What <b>is</b> the right way to
behave?</li>
<li>You could say <b>No Open Source Software can be used to develop weaponry</b>, but
what about the extremely real problem of leftover armements from conflicts all
around the world.</li>
<li>Bruce Perens thinks that imposing ethical behaviour via a licence is silly and
won't work. Primarily because it would be unenforceable if challenged in court <a href="https://perens.com/2019/10/12/invasion-of-the-ethical-licenses/">linky</a>.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org64e0e91">Brief Case Study: What if No Military Application Was Allowed?</h3>
<ul>
<li>Right now there are an estimated 110 million anti-personnel mines in the
ground.</li>
<li>Most of these are in areas occupied by people without the resources to clear
them.</li>
<li>In Vietnam people are still being killed or maimed by leftover weaponry from
the war in the 1960's. Primarily in area's where they grow coffee for use in
Instant brands.</li>
<li>These are not rich farmers, in spite of mass produced coffee like this being
the most heavily traded commodity on the stock market.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org89785d0"></h3>
<ul>
<li>20,000 people are killed each year by landmines. <b>Bosnia and Herzegovina</b> is
so heavily covered in mines whole regions are inaccesible and may never be
cleared.</li>
<li>Unless that is major technological changes occur, right now it's simply too
dangerous to try in many places, and not worth the risk of one being missed.</li>
<li>Open Source (both software and hardware) would seem an ideal place for such
innovation, but any move in this direction would, of necessity mean
co-operation with creators of military hardware, something many hardcore Open
Source advocates are against.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="orgf9eed55"></h3>
<ul>
<li>Plus any advances would be available to the military. I can't see how this
would be a bad thing myself, they should clean up after themselves, and it
might make them obsolete as weapons.</li>
<li>In fact to get it working properly, working directly with the military would
probably a good idea, after a period of initial development.</li>
<li>Work is still going on to clear ordinance from World War One, each year human
remains are recovered among this ordinance, identified as far as possible and
repatriated, so simply blowing them up en-masse isn't an option. If it were
these former battlefields would have been cleared a long time ago.</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="orgca9a00c"></h3>
<ul>
<li>Further reading</li>
<li><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241209540_Ethical_issues_in_open_source_software">Ethical Issues in Open Source Software by Frances S. Grodzinsky et al</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c2056cf6-d3a8-4016-83d0-322a69f78e1a">Ethical Open Source: Is the world ready?</a></li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org7fdb064">Obligatory XKCD</h3>
<div class="figure">
<p><img src="img/research_ethics.png" alt="research_ethics.png" />
</p>
</div>
<ul>
<li>Copyright:</li>
<li>Mirrored to avoid bandwidth stealing</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<section id="slide-sec-">
<h3 id="org6e7aacb">Licence for this work</h3>
<ul>
<li>Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International by Dr Carey Pridgeon 2020</li>
<li>(Licence does not cover linked images owned by other content creators)</li>
</ul>
</section>
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